Leukemia Society fundraiser in memory of Dave Stevens.

In honor of Dave Stevens, the Society of Illustrators and Spectrum have come together to help raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. A portion of the proceeds from the Spectrum Exhibition will be donated to the Society's "Light the Night Walk" team.

To join our team or donate money, please visit: Society's Light the Night Walk Team.

(You do not have to live in New York to participate in the walk. Click on “find local walks” to find the event nearest you.)

Funds raised through Light the Night Walk support the work of hundreds of the world’s leading researchers in their fight for better therapies and cures for leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.

"[Dave Stevens] was enormously talented, an artist whose Rocketeer series reminded everyone how good comics could be, a creator whose work literally sparkled with personality....I don't think I ever knew him quite as well as he probably knew me (and I believe many of his friends would say the same thing), but I do know that I miss him." -- Arnie Fenner, co-founder of Spectrum, co-editor of Brush with Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens

James Gurney's How-To book

Anyone that paints needs to be reading Jim Gurney's blog the Gurney Journey. Daily. It's such a deep fountain of information, I've seen seasoned pros get sucked into it for hours. Gurney has hinted at collecting the posts and making a How-To book of it, and so he has:

"The book is called Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn't Exist. It’s a big book: 224 pages, 400 illustrations. Andrews McMeel will be doing a beautiful job of production, and they are keeping the price down to $24.99.

This is the main project I’ve been working on during the last year. The material comes from my art school lectures and also from this blog. The reason I wrote the book—and this blog—is that there’s a lot of information that I think is crucial to imaginative picturemaking but I’ve never been able to find it in how-to art books."

Illustration Academy website

The Illustration Academy just revamped their website with lots of cool goodies to steal away your time. Galleries of the instructors and students, podcasts, and mini demo videos. Includes Jon Foster, George Pratt, Gary Kelley, Sterling Hundley, Anita Kunz, and others. They also started a blog and, considering the artist at their disposal, it has potential to be an amazing daily stop.

The downside -- they use the flash/ajax/animated portfolio portal that makes me want to throw my laptop out the window...or just turn the thing off and go to bed. (You'll notice no actual paintings appear in this post.)

Realms of Fantasy, closing up shop.

This is sad news. I've had a Realms of Fantasy subscription for years. They had a strong dedication to artists. Each issue featured an artist's gallery and all of their stories were accompanied by illustration. I always looked forward to getting the new edition and seeing a great mix of season pros and newer artists cutting their teeth.

Edgar Allan Poe's 200th Birthday

Whether you know it or not, you are familiar with Michael Deas' artwork...and have even licked it. Not only did he paint the Columbia Pictures logo, but he's done numerous portraits for the US Postal service -- James Dean, Cary Grant, Stephen Vincent Benete, and many others. And the odd Time cover, Tor cover!, and, and,...

Michael also happened to write the book on Edgar Allan Poe portraits, so I'm sure he was thrilled to be given the commission to paint Poe for today's big birthday. Congrats, Michael!

If you are ever in the same room with Michael, buy him a drink and ask him to tell you about the National Art's Club stolen Poe daguerreotype. It's a great story. The FBI was involved.

Other artsy Poe-ness:
Mark Summers on drawing Poe, and again. "He’s got one of those faces rich with distinct and fascinating features, but I’ve found that it all comes down to the eyes—the saddest, deepest eyes in literature."
Adam Rex making funny with the Poe and writer's block, here, here, and here.

A Sad Farewell to Edd Cartier

Edd Cartier passed away on Christmas day. He was a highly regarded and influential artist from the 30s to the 60s, most famous for his work on The Shadow and John W. Campbell’s Astounding Stories. He had a humorous and fluid style, equally adept at seemingly effortless figure drawing, creature design, and hardware. He showed us a future that was truly strange, maybe a little dangerous, and always fun.

Stop the Suit Petition

The Graphic Artist Guild is suing 5 individuals -- Brad Holland, Terry Brown, Cynthia Turner, Bruce Lehman, and Ken Dubrowski -- for defamation. Whatever anyone's thoughts on reprographic royalties are, it is sad to see an artist's advocacy group suing individual artists for voicing an opinion.

To sign the petition asking GAG to drop the lawsuit visit Stop Suit Petition and email them your name.

Pass it on.

Spectrum 16 Call for Entries has begun.

The power of Twitter: I heard about this from @richardsolomon before anywhere else.

Spectrum has been teasing the Peter de Seve poster for a while and, like everything Peter does, it's a beaut. Spectrum 16 is now pen to accept entries. I enjoy a number of the various annuals but to my mind, this is he one I couldn't live without.

Spectrum 16 Call for Entries
Deadline: January 23rd.

Arnie Fenner, writing for Tor.com.

Proof.

Sketch Theater

A fun site found via Drawn. Sketch Theater, true to its name, displays time-lapse videos of artists sketching. Shown here: Travis Louie

From the Illustrators Partnership of America

From the IPA. Spread the word.
-----
Orphan Works: Risking Our Nation's Copyright Wealth. The Senate has just passed their version of the Orphan Works Bill. Now we must try to stop the House Judiciary Committee from folding their bill and adopting the Senate version. We've supplied a special letter for this purpose.

PLEASE EMAIL CONGRESS TONIGHT.
http://capwiz.com/illustratorspartnership/issues/alert/?alertid=11980321
--Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner, for the Board of the Illustrators' Partnership

Goro Fujita's Robotic Speed Paintings

Come on, admit it: These totally made you smile.

Goro Fujita

Check out his demo reel, "Interview with Carl Hawkins". Very funny and cute.

CGunit.net

Shelly Wan turned me on to this amazing art site, CGUnit.net. A mix of traditional and CG art with more than a dash of photography, rolled up into fashion, fine art, and illustration, all with a scifi/fanatsy kink.

I'm so not cool enough to be hanging out there, but I'll visit daily nonetheless. (In cyberspace, no one can see your Birkenstocks.)

The site is semi NSFW. It's almost difficult to find works that are not half naked, gothy, future/fantasy girls.

FIRST SET: Oleg Duryagin. Alex Kanevsky -- one of my favorite contemporary painters, earlier post here. Chen Man.
SECOND SET: Amy Sol. Chris Bernes. Phil Noto
THIRD SET: Jeff Simpson. Kazu Kibuishi. Jason Chan. Sam Weber.

Spectrum shows off Peter de Seve sketches for Call for Entries 16.

I just Twittered this but I think those of you on RSS feed are not receiving those posts in the right hand column? (Don't worry, you are not missing much -- only a quarter of it is art and illustration related.)

Cathy and Arnie Fenner are showing two sketches from Peter de Seve for their Spectrum 16 Cal for Entries, along with instructions on how to get on the mailing list. They are teasing us by not saying which sketch was chosen...and I'm glad I am not the art dircetor that had to choose. Peter, without question, does some of the wittiest and charming illustrations around.

Peter Chan: Frequenaut

While putting together a Tor.com post, I came across the name Peter Chan. A quick Google scan to his blog and I fell in love with his drawings for the newly released, Ignatius MacFarland Frequenaut. Between these drawings and the write-ups the book is getting, I'm sitting here resentful that my local Barnes & Nobel is closed at 12:18 on a Sunday night...err, Monday morning.

Politics 08

Last night was the opening for the Society of Illustrators' Politics 08 exhibit. It's always tough to see a show during the opening but even through the hubbub of the party this is clearly a knock-out exhibit. It's curated by Edel Rodriguez, former art director for Time Magazine. Being in the middle of this terrifying election and in an era where editorial illustrators are often forced to soften their statements, it was wonderful to see many well crafted and strong opinions. I'll looking forward to a second look.

The party itself was a blast. September starts off the Society's new season, after refurbishing the galleries. They look stunning. The place was jammed packed. I had a great time talking with Chris and SooJin Buzelli, Eric Braddock, Peter de Seve, Scott Brundage, Kurt Huggins and Zelda Devon.

PHOTOS: People in the gallery. Edel Rodriguez and other artists addressing the crowd. John Kascht and Phillip Burke. Barry Blitt's infamous New Yorker cover.

Concept Ships

Holy smokes, if you're all about the hardware, be prepared to spend a lot of time at the ConceptShips blog. The layout is a bit overwhelming but if you settle in, there is tons of great work to see.
TOP: Jae Cheol Park MIDDLE: Sparth BOTTOM: John Wu

Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell have started a blog.

I believe a "hurray" is in order. Boris Vallejo and Julie Bell have started a blog. They're posting sketches, works in progress, commercial and private paintings, gallery outings, and it's a four-for-two blog, 'cause you're also getting a peak at Dave Palumbo and Tony Palumbo's work.

In the "What Rock Have I Been Under?" folder

The Illustrator's Partnership of America has a blog dedicated to the Orphan Works issue. Agree or disagree, if you're an artist, it's your future they are talking about.

(Where have I been to have not seen this until now?!)

Stephen Youll on B&N.com

Check out Barnes and Nobel's "Cover Story" interview with Stephen Youll. Besides hearing him talk about his work (including a few Tor titles), you get see a lot of cool bugs.